Antagonism Breakdown
by luv2write0205
Summary: A brutal case in Chicago, Illinois involving dead little girls from a ballet studio affects the team, especially Spenser Reid. Grasping for comfort in his own obscurity, Reid pays a visit to the father of one of the victims, who needs time to heal his own inner darkness, but turns his bitterness towards those who try to patch up the voids in his heart… slight sequel to "Miami Heat"


**Disclaimer: **I don't own any part of Criminal Minds or the character's used in this story…

**Summary: **A brutal case in Chicago, Illinois involving dead little girls from a ballet studio affects the team, especially Spenser Reid. Grasping for comfort in his own obscurity, Reid pays a visit to the father of one of the victims, who needs time to heal his own inner darkness, but turns his bitterness towards the ones who try to patch up the voids in his heart… very slight sequel to "Miami Heat"

**Author's Note: **Special thanks to **The Chit Chat Mods (tonnie2001969, iluvtvalot **and **hxchick) **for assigning me this prompt for "The Challenge within a Challenge Assignment" on their forum. I was assigned: "Spenser Reid and Jonas Hembree- Irate father of a victim" taken from "The Original Character Challenge". I hope that everyone enjoys this fic that I came up with to correspond with the challenge.

_"The less you talk, the more you're listened to." -Abigail Van Buren_

***~OoO~***

**Antagonism Breakdown**

The rays of moonlight shone onto the balcony of the huge hotel where music was pumping, couples were dancing and drinks were being served. Among them, six Virginians, or more specifically, FBI agents, were seated around a long white table, two female and four males. Five of the six were talking and joking with each other, enjoying the company of their friends and the cool atmosphere of the dance club that they were present at. Their minds had drifted from the events of the day and the roughness of their line of work, all except the youngest of the bunch.

Spenser Reid felt like a failure, an outcast, someone that everyone had placed the blame on. Of course, he knew that nobody on the team was rationalizing such things about him; they never would do something like that. Yet, his mind was still contemplating the fact that it was his fault that all of these little girls, especially the most recent victim, had died because of his lack of quick wits. The crying face of the father of Jodie Hembree, the most recent victim, would never leave his brain. That was one of the reasons that he wished that he didn't have an eidetic memory.

Out of bitterness of his daughter's death, Jodie's father, Jonas Hembree, had placed the blame on Reid, saying that if he had shot the unsub right away, his daughter wouldn't have been killed. But he had been too late. The team had been less than five minutes away and Reid had arrived at the unsub's house first. The unsub, Marcus Friscuss, had been holding Jodie hostage, a gun to her head. When Reid had asked the Marcus to surrender, the man had pulled the trigger on Jodie before Reid had a chance to shoot him.

Reid knew that he should have waited for the rest of the team to arrive before entering Marcus' house. He had been so desperate to save Jodie that he hadn't been thinking straight. His legs had moved before he had made a reasonable decision. It had been out of rage that Marcus had killed six year old Jodie. She had been shot through the head, murdered right in front of him and he hadn't done a thing to stop the man in the heat of the moment. Reid had shot the man a second later, but just like that, Jodie was gone. Trying to explain to a confused, mixed-up father that he had tried, but failed, to save his daughter hadn't worked.

Reid was so deep in thought that he didn't hear the team's conversation. The pumping of the music had been blocked from his intellect. He didn't hear Morgan calling his name continuously; his voice lost in Reid's mind, his endless amounts of thoughts becoming a huge blur.

"Earth to Reid! What's got your head in a tizzy, kid?" Morgan was nearly shouting when Reid finally heard him. He could feel every team member's eyes locked on him. His cheeks turned a bright red when he realized that the team was awaiting his answer.

"Erm…nothing" he mumbled. Judging by the look on the faces of his team, he could tell that they didn't believe him. They were profilers, for crying out loud. Unless you had a poker face that rivaled Hotch's, there was basically no way to cover up anything around them.

Morgan could tell that Reid wasn't ready to open up to them, so he dropped the subject, the team following his lead. JJ went back to drinking the fizzy, peach-colored drink that Dave had bought her, Dave went back to laughing with Hotch about the flaws of his ex-wives in bed and Emily snuggled into Hotch's chest while laughing with JJ about how cute the blonde's son, Henry, was.

Morgan took a sip of his wine and crossed his arms over his chest. "So Emily" he began. "Have you and Hotch been adjusting into your new relationship well?"

Emily looked at Morgan, a huge smile visible on her face. "Actually, Morgan, we have been doing great. Hotch, here, loves getting kinky in his office after work, late at night after you all leave. When he's not being all scary at work, he's actually really sexy. It's always his idea to do the dirty on his desk".

Reid had to blush at that while Morgan looked intrigued and surprised at the same time. Emily laughed, tossing her dark, curled hair behind her shoulder. Her bright lips were holding a smile while Hotch looked down at his girlfriend, a smirk on his face.

"Why did you have to tell them our little secret?" Hotch whispered into her ear, while she grinned in satisfaction. Reid watched Emily lean over, whispering something back to him before kissing her boss' lips softly. Taking Hotch's hand, Emily got up from the table. When she told the team that they needed to take a "bathroom break", she got a lot of raised eyebrows and excited giggles from all of them. They were all sure that the brunette duo wasn't just going to the bathroom.

The rest of the night continued on with all of them cracking jokes with each other, laughing about funny moments and enjoying each other's company. Reid tried to forget about the day's events, but he just couldn't stop thinking about what had occurred. When the time came for them to go back to their hotel rooms, Reid was still thinking about ways to cure his remorse.

***~OoO~***

An hour later, Reid and Morgan were trudging down the hallway to the hotel room that they were sharing. JJ and Dave had gone off to their rooms to get a good night's sleep. When the two men passed Hotch and Emily's hotel room, Morgan smirked upon hearing the loud moans and kissing coming from behind the closed door while Reid began blushing once again.

Once they had arrived at the hotel room, Morgan sat down in one of the chairs in the living room, Reid sitting in the one opposite to him.

"Reid" Morgan began, breaking the unspoken silence between the two of them. "Listen man, I know that you are on a guilt trip with what happened today. I get that, but all of us want to help you through it. We want you to know that you aren't alone in this. What happened today wasn't your fault or any one of our faults. It was all because of one sicko with a plan to hurt parents and take their little girls. He wanted to break their relationships apart, but you stopped him from killing any other girls".

"I know, but I didn't save Jodie. I left a bad impression on Jonas, whose daughter I failed to save because I was careless".

Morgan nodded, understanding how hard this was for Reid to comprehend. "I hate to see you blaming yourself for something like this".

"What do you think Jonas Hembree would say if I paid him a visit before we fly out tomorrow? I want to let him know how much he and his daughter meant to me. He is in the dark and I'm sure that he needs a shoulder to lean on. Jodie's mother died when she was three. Jodie was all he had" Reid finished, looking up at Morgan for the first time in the past five minutes.

"That's a wonderful idea, kid" Morgan answered. "We aren't flying out until four in the afternoon. I was going to visit my mother and sisters anyway. I'm sure that Jonas would like to know that you care about him".

Reid nodded his head. He wasn't sure how Jonas was going to react to his unexpected stopover, but he needed to feel satisfied that the troubled man would be okay. It would also help end his own guiltiness as well.

"Let's get some sleep before tomorrow" Morgan murmured with a yawn. He climbed into one bed while Reid, with a slight hesitation, got into his own bed and tried to fall asleep.

***~OoO~***

Early the next morning, Reid awoke, feeling like his bladder was about to explode. He didn't realize how much he needed to go to the bathroom. Morgan was snoring softly in the bed next to his. Glancing at the clock, he saw that it read 7:32. Creeping off to the bathroom, he tried not to wake Morgan from his sleep.

After that, Reid made his bed and got dressed. Even as a child, his mother had always considered him to be a morning bird. Slipping out of the hotel complex, Reid began on his morning walk, which always refreshed him. It gave the young genius a chance to stretch his bones, start the day on the right foot and most importantly, take the time to organize his thoughts.

***~OoO~***

A half hour later, Reid returned from his morning walk to enter the recreation room, where he thought he heard voices. What he saw surprised him even more. Emily was on Hotch's lap in a metal chair and the two agents were making out passionately. Reid reddened when he heard Emily moan loudly, cupping the back of the unit chief's head. As their kiss became even more passionate, Reid slowly backed out of the room, not wanting to intrude on the couple. Instead, he backed right into Dave, who was entering the rec room.

"Well, well, well. What have we got here?" Dave began with a smirk. The smooching pair turned to face the two dumbfounded agents by the door. Emily's lipstick was smeared all over both of their lips and both agents were breathing heavy. Licking her lips nervously, Emily refused to meet Dave's eyes, which entertained the older agent even more.

"Having some early morning delight?" he asked with a chuckle and a raised eyebrow. Emily frowned, parting her kiss-swollen lips to feed back a snide remark at Dave. Before she could say a word, Dave butted in.

"Please continue with your little session here. I'll take the kid with me and we'll be on our way. Come along, kiddo" he said, grabbing an astonished Reid by the arm and leading him out the door. As soon as they had exited, Emily adjusted herself on her supervisor's lap and began to engorge herself in yet another kiss, mashing her lips and tongue together with Hotch's while moaning loudly into his mouth.

***~OoO~***

Reid and Dave approached Reid's hotel room, where they could hear voices coming from inside. Opening the door, they saw Morgan talking to his mother on his cell phone and JJ was sitting on Reid's bed, her back resting against the pillow.

"Hey guys" JJ said in a soft voice as to not disturb Morgan's phone call.

"JJ, would you like to order some breakfast after this, with the rest of the team?" Dave asked the blonde, who nodded. Morgan ended his phone call and looked at his fellow team members.

"Good morning, early birds. What are you all doing on this fine morning?"

"Nothing really" Reid mumbled, his eyes connecting with the ground.

"Well, we just finished intruding on the lovebirds in the recreation room. All those two ever do is make out, whether it be in the janitor's closet or the bathroom" Dave continued. "I remember when JJ and I heard them in the bathroom in that hotel in Miami. It's a good thing that I used my cell phone to record the "noises" that they were making otherwise none of you would have believed us".

"Yeah, that recording was funny" Morgan remarked with a grin, automatically knowing that he was talking about Hotch and Emily. "Garcia couldn't believe that it was really them until she heard Emily moaning Hotch's name".

The four agents laughed at the memory of their case in Miami, Florida that they had solved with CSI and the Missing Person's Unit. It had also been the place where Emily and Hotch had "hooked up", as the team had put it.

JJ's stomach rumbled, causing the blonde agent to blush and the rest of the males to look at her.

"That means that we should order some breakfast" Morgan announced, the rest of them nodding in agreement. After he had ordered the meals, a pumped Emily and a flushed Hotch joined them in Reid and Morgan's hotel room. After they had eaten breakfast, the team headed their separate ways, to spend time in Chicago before they left. Emily and Hotch went to a place that was similar to Lover's Lane, JJ and Dave visited a museum, Morgan headed to his mother's house and Reid prepared to visit Jonas Hembree.

***~OoO~***

Reid approached the door of the Hembree's residency and knocked on the door. Hearing no answer, he knocked again, harder this time.

"Mr. Hembree? This is Agent Reid from the FBI. Can I talk to you, please?"

After about five minutes, Reid heard shuffling around from inside and the muffled voice of Jonas Hembree.

"What do you want from me, agent?"

"Mr. Hembree, I just want to talk to you. It's about yesterday. Listen, I wanted to apologize for-"

Before Reid could continue, the door opened a little and he could see the piercing blue eyes of Jonas Hembree standing in the doorway. His cheeks were stained with tear marks, his eyes were puffy and red from crying and he looked mentally broken. He motioned for Reid to enter the raised ranch style house. Leading him to the kitchen, he indicated for the young genius to sit in one of the chairs at the table. He began to make some coffee in pure silence.

After the period of silence, Reid finally spoke. "Jonas, I feel terribly about the loss of your daughter. It is impossible to put into words how sorry I am for her departure". He sipped the coffee that Jonas had made him.

"Ain't nothin' gonna bring her back, though" Jonas muttered huskily, taking a sip of his coffee and wiping the corner of his eyes with a white cloth hankie. "She was my little girl".

"I know, Jonas. I will never understand what the loss of a child feels like. I'm not a father yet. Believe me; I blame myself for what has happened to Jodie. I know that it is my fault for not stopping her killer in time".

Jonas got up from the kitchen table and began to pace the floor angrily. "I kinda wish that that sick son of a bitch killer wasn't dead so that I could go over to his place and punch his lights out for what he did to my Jodie". Flinging his hankie onto the floor, he started to stomp his feet on the white tile that made up the kitchen floor.

"Mr. Hembree-"

"Shut up! Just shut up. I don't know how to handle Jodie's death. She was all I had and now she's gone. It's my fault because I signed her up for the dance lessons that she really wanted to take. I didn't know that she had a psychopath dance instructor that would abduct her. She died without me by her side. She died alone in the hands of some crazy, cold-blooded, killer!"

When Jonas had finished, he broke down into a trail of tears. Collapsing onto the couch in the living room, he began to cry hysterically. Reid slowly entered the living room and sat next to the distraught father and gently laid a hand on his shoulder. When Jonas had finished crying, he sat up and looked Reid in the eyes for the first time since he had been there.

"I'm really sorry. I shouldn't be blaming you for my daughter's death. You are kind just for taking the time out of your busy schedule to visit me. Thank you".

"Anytime, Mr. Hembree and I personally think that it's nobody's fault, but Marcus Friscuss. If you ever want to talk, feel free to give me a call" Reid replied. He handed the man his card with his name and number on it.

Jonas softly gave Reid a sad half smile in a thankful gesture. "Thank you. You're going to make a great father, someday". Before Reid had stood up, he gave the young man a wink. Shaking Jonas' hand, the two departed. Reid walked out of the Hembree household and into the afternoon streets of Chicago, feeling like a weight was lifted off of his heart.

***~OoO~***

_Charles Kuralt wrote "The love of family and the admiration of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege"._

***~OoO~***

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